Currently, many professional services industries, including law firms and the legal services industry, are in the midst of business model changes. An increase in the number of potential workers (e.g., college and/or law school graduates) and providers has created pricing pressure on fees in certain markets. Moreover, the increasing sophistication of consumers and purchasers of professional services (e.g., in house counsel) has lead to ever increasing demands for higher levels of efficiency. Such factors have lead many service providers to change from billing work by the hour to so-called alternative fee arrangements, including but not limited to capped fee arrangements, contingency arrangements, and other billing arrangements. Knowledge workers are under increased pressure to create work product that is complete and correct, in lesser amounts of time.
For many knowledge workers, the drafting of various types of documents and reports is an activity occupying a significant portion of their time. Many tools exist to help knowledge workers draft documents, but the primary tool in actual use is generally a word processor such as the MICROSOFT WORD™ or GOOGLE DOCS™ word processing systems.
Word processors have various common drawbacks including the combination of content and formatting in the drafting interface, which forces the knowledge worker to perform the work of a layout designer or typographer. Further, currently used systems are constrained by primitive version control and the inability to easily combine the contributions of multiple writers. Native client systems such as the MICROSOFT WORD™ word processing program generally lack online multi-user concurrent editing. Online systems such as GOOGLE DOCS™ word processing system permit concurrent editing, but are often unsuitable for use in a professional setting at least because they may not integrate with enterprise document management systems.
Furthermore, known systems are constrained by a common reliance on markup, stream, or simple file-based data formats lacking the flexibility to incorporate advanced functionality such as references, linking to internal and outside content, and variable substitution. Many simple operations such as loops or the substitution of variable text patterns is difficult or impossible to accomplish without scripting, which is not within the skillset of most knowledge workers. Moreover, known systems typically do not allow the document drafter to incorporate material from the context of the situation the document is intended for (e.g. something referenced by the document, an older document, an exhibit, the pleadings of a lawsuit, etc.), or to deliver a drafted document directly to its intended recipient (e.g. PACER, a court's electronic filing system or a USPTO filing system.)
Very simple editors do exist which do not mix formatting and content in the user interface, such as NOTEPAD™ on MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ XP™, or EMACS™. However, these editors cannot produce the professional quality print output required by document drafting professionals. Further, these simple editors typically cannot include other media types into their documents, such as images, tables, or exhibits.
Systems used to store and manage document files include document management systems such as the IMANAGE WORKSITE™ or KNOWLEDGETREE™ document management systems. These systems may attempt to help professionals keep track of differing versions of documents. However, these systems generally lack the flexibility and power of modern revision control systems and may prevent efficient, optimized workflows for collaboration. Use of document management systems in combination with modern version control paradigms and workflows is not currently possible, because document management systems lack the ability to “introspect” documents and discern what changes were made, by who, and when; thus eliminating the potential benefits to be gained by revision control.
In light of the aforementioned and other limitations and failings of known document drafting software tools, there is a clear and unmet demand for more powerful systems and methods for drafting documents. It would be beneficial if such a system could provide, among other features, the separation of typesetting and/or layout of a document from the drafting of content and could enable the dynamic linking or re-use of data from other documents or references. Moreover, it would beneficial if contributions from multiple on or offline collaborators could be merged automatically, or with minimal manual intervention. Lastly, knowledge workers would benefit greatly from a user interface that is adapted to present customizable interface elements based on a particular type of document or section of document the worker is editing.